Socioeconomic Backgrounds of Educators and Their Attitudes Toward Women as Academic Administrators

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship, if any, between the socioeconomic backgrounds of educators and their attitudes toward women as academic administrators, including a comparison of the attitudes of male and female educators toward women as administrators. The population consisted of all full time faculty and administrators in 25 colleges and universities holding membership in the Association for Higher Education (AHE) of North Texas during the 1984/1S85 academic year. This group of institutions consists of 10 community/junior colleges and 15 senior colleges and universities. Data generation was achieved through the administration of a research package mailed to a sample of 300 subjects selected by a proportionate random process from the defined population. The instruments consisted of a modified version of the Women As Managers Scale (WAMS) and the Hollingshead Factor Index of Social Status. Useable data from 209 respondents were subjected to multiple regression techniques. The hypothesis that socioeconomic background of educators will be positively related to attitudes toward women as academic administrators was not upheld. It was however determined that attitudes toward women as administrators are explanable by a combination of job and non-job related variables, with women having more positive attitudes than men. The findings that 1) younger subjects have more positive attitudes, 2) experience under a female superordinate, generated favorable comments, and 3) educators as a whole had a highly favorable attitude lead to the conclusion that opportunities for advancement of women into adminstrative positions are brighter than often reported. It is suspected that the legislative activities and the feminist movement of the 1960s may have had a positive influence